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“What happened to this being a normal school trip?” Marinette asked herself. “It was supposed to be a nice break from the whole superhero thing and a chance to be near Adrien.”
Except, starting the morning off in a normal fashion didn’t mean squat, now that Marinette thought back.
Normal—
Marinette stood outside of the museum, waiting for Alya to arrive so they might head inside where they were supposed to meet up with the rest of their classmates for the summer school activity, but Alya didn’t appear until after a van passed by. Her best friend waved, hurrying across the street before she started chattering about that days itinerary.
“So, what’s with the foreigners in school uniform?” Chloe asked.
Marinette turned her head and looked at the teens who looked to be around their age speaking in what she thought was English as all sorts of vehicles passed by the museum outside. Her eyes somehow were drawn towards a pair of robin blue eyes that stood out from the crowd while another boy standing next to that person looked away, looking rather annoyed while his uniform was far from pristine for an elite school. There was—there was something familiar about the smile and also the other one, yet she couldn’t possibly know either one.
“Gotham Academy.”
“Gotham Academy?” Marinette glanced over at Adrien.
“It’s—” Adrien frowned, not finishing what he was going to say.
“Gotham Academy. It’s one of the schools on my mom’s approved list if I were to be going to a school outside of France. And—” Her eyes narrowed. “Apparently Bruce Wayne’s ward goes to that school, doesn’t he?”
“Oh yeah. Grayson is here,” Adrien said as the boy with the robin blue eyes suddenly caught sight of him, as if he were a familiar face and waved, his grin suddenly becoming quite cheeky which made him frown. “My dad’s said something about having another ward to design for though, though he’s not said much beyond what his name is. Doesn’t really talk that much about it.”
“So, a friend?”
“Ah, well—it’s Grayson, so he’d insist despite us barely interacting. It was on one of those boring trips,” Adrien frowned. “Anyways. Chances of running into him when our groups are going to be doing something different—slim.”
“He’s cute,” Chloe muttered.
“And older than us by a couple of years.”
“What? He’s smaller than that kid next to him!”
“He’s...” Adrien shook his head as one of their teacher’s arrived and the subject of Bruce Wayne’s ward—whoever Bruce Wayne was—went away.
It went away until the field trip ended and they were waiting outside at the same time the students at Gotham Academy were waiting for their bus. The van—the one which drove past her right before Alya showed and the one which drove by outside suddenly drove up and men came out. Instinctively, Marinette stepped in front of Adrien, knowing that he was the likely kidnapping target for the men, yet...
It was Grayson instead, his robin blue eyes going wide, yet there seemed like—it seemed like he was used to such things happening.
Which in itself was disturbing, given the fact nobody should be used to being kidnapped. Marinette slowly slunk away as Chloe grabbed not Adrien’s arm, saying something about not going anywhere right after someone else was kidnapped. In the back of her mind, she didn’t notice that the boy who was slightly taller than Grayson had also disappeared and instead hurried to change into Ladybug so she might go after the van.
“I still think your tools are weird,” a familiar voice almost made her crash into the wall, her mind expecting Cat Noir despite the fact she recognized the voice as Robin.
She frowned at him, before hurrying forward along the wall. “Look. I know that we’re friends, but...”
“Not really,” Robin said, swinging forth. “And using a yo-yo?”
“Nightwing seems it’s interesting, but where is he given the fact I’ve never seen the two of you apart.” Robin let out a sound of irritation at her statement as they continued following the van while Ladybug noticed Cat Noir wasn’t there yet, though she suspected he would soon be. “And we are friends. I mean, we’re both on the team aren’t we.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
“That...” Ladybug’s nostril’s flare out. “You’re a jerk.”
“And you’re too much like him, wanting to be friends with everybody,” Jason snapped.
“Why the hell are you in a worse mood than usual?”
“Yeah, well...”
“And why the hell are you even here in Paris on my turf! Isn’t there a rule about nobody going into Batman’s turf without permission that I keep hearing about, but here you are...”
“Could you shut up already?”
“Well, we’re not friends,” Ladybug waved her hand, still jabbering at him in irritation while they chased down the van.
“If you weren’t exactly like him, I wouldn’t get why you want to be.” Jason landed on the roof of the building the van pulled into, likely as those who kidnapped Bruce Wayne’s ward thought they weren’t being followed. He started forward so he might observe, only for her to touch his shoulder. She flinched when he jolted away, his hand reaching up defensively for the place she touched. “What the hell are you doing?”
“First off, I don’t know who you’re rerferring to, but your rather dense to think that nobody would want to be your friend. I mean, why would...”
He looked her in the eye and then said. “Nightwing. You’re like a female version of him for crying out loud, though that stupid Cat Noir has his sense of humor.”
“Sorry, but I think Nightwing’s sense of humor is actually better than Cat Noir and I say that as someone who does hero stuff her in Paris with him.”
“And I’m not him.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“I’m not the first Robin, the one everyone talks about. That’s Nightwing.”
“So?”
“What do you mean so?”
“You’re your own Robin, aren’t you, but obviously you’ve been trusted in doing a mission on your own, otherwise Nightwing would be hovering, wouldn’t he.” A smirk crossed her face. “Well, as much as he can given the fact you’re now taller than him, right? You should tell him that the next time he does that.”
Robin looked at her. “It’s actually not like that, but—I can’t go into it right now.” Letting out a sigh, he looked down at the place. “I just—”
“Don’t worry. We’ve partnered up before, but I rather appreciated the fact he took Cat Noir off my hands. Plus, we’re friends.”
“You talk to much.”
“You’re not supposed to tell friends that!”
“Seriously...”
“You’re supposed to actually respond to the conversations they’re trying to have with you, or...” Ladybug frowned. “Wait? You didn’t realize what I’ve been trying to do? That I’ve been trying to be your friend when he partners us up and he’s not hovering like a mother hen? And don’t think I haven’t noticed he does that.”
“It’s weird, I know. But...”
“You’re family.”
“We’re not. Nightwing and I...”
“Are family. At least, that’s how he feels.”
“How he feels doesn’t matter.”
“Because how you feel does?” She sighed. “Because I’m quite sure you feel the same way.”
“Whatever. We’ve a mission.”
“I’ll be quiet now.”
“How about we get into that warehouse down there instead?”
“And I’ll be quiet while we infiltrate.” Ladybug sighed, suddenly wishing that Cat Noir would show up. Taking a deep breath, they headed in, but they could hear the people talking, nor did she like what she heard, though she couldn’t see the Grayson kid.
“What are they saying?”
“Don’t you have a translator in your suit?”
“I don’t know how to turn it on, thank you very much. Nightwing’s the tech genius and no matter how much he explains how to use it, I can’t.”
“That Grayson kid, they’re wanting to hold him for ransom, but apparently he’s already said something cocky to them and they’ve told him they’ll bloody his lip even more and give him another black eye if he’s not careful because Bruce will want his ward alive, but another’s.” She stopped. “Wait. My classmate said something about there being two wards.”
“Yeah. Well, the other one tends to get forgotten because he’s not a stand out like Grayson is,” Robin muttered. “And what are they saying now?”
“That he’s going in and out of consciousness, so...”
She of course didn’t need to tell Robin they needed to move as he already did, but she quickly followed. She flinched, noticing how Robin didn’t hold back. She’d heard Nightwing warn him about not going overboard, but he’d managed before to control his anger when it was just the two of them, but right now...
To say the thugs were beaten into a bloody pulp was an understatement, but he turned to her. “Where is he?”
“You kind of beat them up before I could hear that part,” Ladybug muttered, noticing how he panicked.
Someone dropped from above and Robin lashed out, violently. “Woah! It’s me. Took me longer than I wanted to get here, but...”
Robin froze, staring.
Cat Noir pointed. “There I think?” Robin hurried forward, fumbling with the lock while Cat Noir rubbed his head. “Is it just me, or is he not acting like himself?”
“He’s—a bit more violent than usual I think?”
“Robin isn’t violent.” Cat Noir muttered, walking towards the door.
“Well, maybe the previous Robin, but he’s not that Robin.”
“He’s...” The door opened and they stepped in.
Grayson was sitting on a seat, his breath going in and out as Robin completely tensed, but then he snapped. “Hey! Moron!”
Grayson’s eyes blinked and looked up. “Oh. Jay. About time... you—oh.” The teen swallowed. “Crap.”
“Nightwing.”
Ladybug’s eyes blinked while Robin sighed, her head turning from Cat Noir, back to Grayson when Robin said, “Dick head!”
“I know. I...” The kid smiled and Ladybug realized why she recognized the smile, yet she knew neither one were supposed to reveal their real identity. His tone of voice darkened. “Adrien. Nice to see you as well.”
“Oh. Thanks. I guess I deserved that one though,” Cat Noir muttered.
“A...” Ladybug nearly choked.
“Care to tell me...” Cat Noir pointed at her.
“Nope. I love the drama too much,” Grayson, who was definitely Nightwing said, but she tried picturing either Nightwing or Robin as rich kids. He winked at her, while her mind digested the fact Cat Noir, the guy she insisted she didn’t like was in fact the guy she was crushing on.
“He’s right. You’re a dick head, Dick,” Cat Noir sighed, stepping over to cut the ropes which bound Grayson to the chair. “The police are going to be here soon. Goodness knows if your guy’s dad is anything like my own—there’s going to be a shit storm.”
“Nah. I’m a romantic,” he said, definitely directing the words at her though the sec, but then he looked at Robin. “Hey. Jay. Come here.”
“No.”
“Jay. Come here. I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not. You got cocky with the kidnappers like you usually do and the usual thing ended up happening! He’s going...”
“Yeah. Bruce is going to flip his lid, but he’s...” Nightwing—Grayson, whoever, stepped over and pulled Robin into a hug, keeping the serious expression up. “Listen to me. You’ve got to get to Bruce. Robin can’t be seen here as it would cause an international stir. And I’ll tell him. I’ll tell him I slipped, but get back to him so he doesn’t freak out so much, okay.”
“You’re not okay, so stop saying you are.”
“I’m okay because you’re okay.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Just. Get going.”
“You’re a dick, Dick,” Robin snapped.
“That’s not...”
“It’s—“Adrien—Cat Noir swallowed. “You actually know that word in English?”
“And?”
“Okay. So you must think me an even bigger, well, you know, but um...”
“It’s my name,” Nightwing said. “Dick Grayson is my name.”
“Why would...” Ladybug frowned, rubbing the back of his head.
“And when this is over could you head to Mount Justice. I’ll likely be grounded for a bit as I did get clobbered.”
“Grounded? You didn’t...”
“I let our identities slip, but I let it slip because I’ve got a major concussion which is the real reason I’ll be grounded from practically everything I like doing as I shouldn’t be doing that kind of stuff with a concussion. Bruce—”
“Your dad?”
“Jay’s dad, not mine.”
“That...”
“Look. Just, could you two keep an eye on Jay for me? He’s going to be super moody until I’m a hundred percent. And could you keep KF out of his hair as well. They don’t get along, those two. And—well, thanks. Thanks for being Jay’s friend. He’s just as bad as me at making friends, but at least I was able to make friends on the team with everybody. I—”
“Don’t worry about it. I rather get it,” Cat Noir—Adrien said